In June the cottonwoods along the bottoms let go all at once, and Granite City fills with drifting white that settles on porches and freshly cut grass. Aburto's lawn care moves through it anyway, mowing, string-trimming the fence lines and edging the drives in the neighborhoods around Lincoln Place and out toward Pontoon Beach. Evening is the good hour here, when the heat finally lifts off the pavement and the last strip of lawn gets its pass. A yard kept on a steady rhythm never looks like it is catching up to itself. It just looks tended, week after week, deep into the long green middle of the summer.